From winning X Games three times, to exploring the wildest parts of the Canadian backcountry to pulling off the world’s first snowbike base jump, Cody Matechuck has explored the limits of Snowbiking. We talk Snowbiking, the freedom of the backcountry and never getting comfortable. Then, we countdown the Top 5 Foods that Start with A.
Cody Matechuk: 01:23
Pointless: 31:07
Top 5: 47:30
Interview with Cody Matechuk
Nick VinZant 0:12
Welcome to Profoundly Pointless. My name is Nick VinZant Coming up in this episode Snowbiking and a foods, not a holes, a foods.
Cody Matechuk 0:23
The biggest thing is backcountry riding freedom, snow bikes, snowmobiles, it's a blank canvas out there. It's absolutely you want to go to that peak, three mountains over, just start heading there. I don't know the first, the first year with the bronze gave me so much disappointment because I was actually leading the race and I stole the bike. And the only thought the first time I hit it, what I was thinking, I'm like, Man, snow bikes never done this. I
Nick VinZant 0:49
want to thank you so much for joining us. If you get a chance, subscribe, leave us a rating or review. We really appreciate it. It really helps us out. If you're a new listener, welcome to the show. If you're a longtime listener, thank you so much for all of your support. So our first guest is a three time X Games gold medalist in Snowbiking. But he also does motocross BASE jumping all kinds of different extreme sports. This is Cody Mata Chuck. So I know this shouldn't really be the first question to ask you. But when I was watching the snowbike videos and kind of learning about it, I just kept wondering like, how did how did this become a sport?
Cody Matechuk 1:32
Just evolution, people have been messing with the stuff since you know, since 1900s, earlier since there's been motors. But the last 1015 20 years is when it's actually been good enough to bring to the masses. It's hard to get a snow bike, which is lower power than a snowmobile and make the chassis dynamics and everything work. So it's actually usable for the majority of people. So technology is just finally caught up to what the idea is of it, basically.
Nick VinZant 2:08
When did you get into it?
Cody Matechuk 2:10
They're very recent. So my first year on him was 2016. And it was actually the first time I wrote one because they were always shooting before they hit the market. And like 2010, or maybe just before with this old style kit to Moto, that you couldn't really get anywhere. They're fun on downhills, but as far as like being able to explore the mountain, they just weren't that good. So now with the recent developments in it all and us being able to do our own testing, and it's just it's come a long way. So in 2016 When I finally got on one I was like, All right, this is now good enough where I'm down to sell my sled and go full time on this. And the year after X Games popped up. They wanted to put snow bikes in and everything kind of just, you know right time, right place, and it just all unfolded.
Nick VinZant 3:06
I want to get into kind of the X game stuff a little bit later. But like when you look at it, what is what is it about the snow back that you like, like what makes it kind of different from other aspects.
Cody Matechuk 3:15
The biggest thing is backcountry riding freedom. It's when you go riding trails on a dirt bike or mountain bike, you're following someone else's trail you're following a predetermined route, snow bikes, snowmobiles, it's a blank canvas out there. It's you know, it's snowboarding without a falling a cat track without following signs. It's absolutely you want to go to that peak, three mountains over just start heading there. And you can you have absolute freedom to go up down sideways off stuff like it doesn't matter. It's just Yeah, it's it's, it's a foam pit. Like when you get good snow, the whole world becomes a foam pit, you can jump off anything, you can bail off things. It's so much fun, just because it's free riding with the safety of you know, if I mess up, I can jump off and go 100 150 feet to my back and I'll be good.
Nick VinZant 4:10
Now, it wasn't one of those things like right like I think that you obviously take it kind of more to the extreme example. But is it something that like, Man, if I just want to go putter around on this thing? I can do that. Or do you have to have a certain skill level to really kind of Maxim it's
Cody Matechuk 4:23
actually something that I prefer to put new people on rather than snowmobiles. So if I'm bringing my girlfriend or some older people or whatever, it's easier. As a beginner to get around the mountains on a snow bike than a snowmobile. The trail will be a little bit harder. But once you're in the back country dealing with different angles of slopes and stuff, where on a snowmobile you have to kick it up on one ski and hold it on one ski as you're climbing or descending snow bike, you're riding across this side slope, you just ride across it. There is no like trying to hold it up on an egg So all these weird angles on the snowmobile become non existent on a snow bike. And it's just an amazing experience to go see the backcountry and see the glaciers and go to ice ks and just go explore what's out there. It's crazy how much terrain you can cover.
Nick VinZant 5:17
I mean, the way you describe it makes it sound amazing. Like That sounds amazing. How come but why is it why isn't it more popular? It's
Cody Matechuk 5:25
expensive. It's a lot of work, you know, snowmobiles these days. It's our like vehicles, they're turnkey, go. You can ride them, put them away wet, right, and put them away wet. Do that for an entire season and be good snow bikes, you're pretty much working on them after every day, a little bit. Every second day you're doing oil changes, you're always checking bolts. They're not as refined as a snowmobile because they are still a custom prod custom product, you're putting a kit onto a bike. So for general, people that want to just buy a toy and go out and ride, it takes more work on a snow bike to keep it all together.
Nick VinZant 6:05
Do you think they'll get that figured out though? Is that a growing pains thing? Or is that just going to be like nah, that's just how this is gonna be.
Cody Matechuk 6:12
If we come to a time where there's custom built purpose built snow bikes and they're running off an assembly line, then yeah, it could definitely be where the snowmobiles are. Is
Nick VinZant 6:22
there any rivalry between the snow bikers and the snowmobilers like because I'm old enough that I kind of remember skiers for snowboarders, that was a thing for a while,
Cody Matechuk 6:31
I actually like to bring it all back to the snowboard ski rivalry because especially when it first started, when people didn't see what snow bikes are capable of. That was a huge thing. You know, we always joke that snowmobiles are like quads, the quad riders, so there's definitely punches back and forth. But in the end, it's really just, if you got a crew of sweaters, it's gonna be a little weird being the only snow biker, or vice versa. You got to crew snow bikers, it's gonna be weird being the only sweater. So you got a group of friends guys all do the same thing. No matter what you're gonna have a great time in the back country. It's just different tools for the same job basically.
Nick VinZant 7:14
Now you want X Games? Three years in a row? Correct. Yeah. And Abrons the year before that, I would imagine the first time was amazing. But did you start to feel a lot of pressure, the second in the third year,
Cody Matechuk 7:27
a little bit. Definitely felt like more pressure. But I don't know the first, the first year with the bronze gave me so much disappointment because I was actually leaving the race and I stole the bike. And I went back in the pack came back to third. So I was kind of pissed. The next year, I had a fire under me. And there wasn't, there was no way I was coming home with anything other than first. And once I kind of learned a formula through that year, I use that formula from for the years to come and kind of did the same thing, rode the same amount, went to the same events, and was able to come to X Games, feeling like the most prepared guy there. Which, if you can, you know, just do a little bit more than everyone else. It's pretty easy to have the confidence going into it. And then I like playing mind games, when I'm there with the guys but just trying to set myself up to have the most confidence coming into the event. And knowing that I did the most work out of the entire field.
Nick VinZant 8:36
What do you mean mind games? You like messing with them? Or something? Or?
Cody Matechuk 8:39
Yeah, pretty much. I go. What's the word cold turkey or like, I shut right off. I don't talk too early. Anybody give everyone cold shoulders and just kind of do my own thing. And let them talk and let them start rumors. Let them shake a little bit. And just let the writing do the talking.
Nick VinZant 9:00
So X Games isn't doing the snowbike competitions right now? Do you still feel like you're the best in the world at it.
Cody Matechuk 9:09
Um, it'd be hard to say there's been people raised in the last few years. But as of last year, I guess the National Snow cross Association, which is across the United States, they actually pulled snow bikes out and they used to have snow bikes at every round. I think now they just haven't met like three rounds. So kind of everyone's losing practice. I do spend a lot of time in the backcountry riding and busting up you know, range roads and whipped out trails, which always helps. So yeah, I think if needed be if we need to go racing again. spend you know, go back to the program. Spend a few months November December January training and writing and yeah, I don't I don't see why I can't be on top again. If you I just I know the commitment it takes. Right now I'm riding freestyle motocross. And it's a lot of fun and racing is, you know, you got to sell your soul a little bit for it. So whether I would go back, that's another question. I'm not sure.
Nick VinZant 10:14
When you kind of look at it, do you feel like you generally push yourself more or hold yourself back more
Cody Matechuk 10:20
on the track? I feel like it's, it's, you know, we're hanging it all out, especially at X games you have. Basically, my program starts in September when I'm training for end of January X Games. And that whole six months or the entire year before is all adding up to one weekend. One Race, there's a heat race, and there's a main event, there's no last chance qualifier, there's nothing. So if you don't make it to the main, you're yours done. So it's, it's, there's not much room to leave anything on the table. You have to try and not crash and be efficient, and not get taken out. Because a start on snow bikes with everyone going into turn one. Everyone's used to being on six foot long dirt bikes, now they're on 10 foot long snow bikes, it gets rowdy, so it's just trying to make it out alive out of turn one, and keep it consistent through the rest of the track. Yeah, it's, uh, you know, there's mind games, it's, it's kind of like, right at 90 95%, right at 100 for a couple laps that you need to,
Nick VinZant 11:30
because the only thing that I could ever compare it to right, like I do mountain biking, and I go over like the bunny slopes, right? But there's always these times where like, I know, I could do this, I know I could do this. And I just can't get myself to do this. Did you ever struggle with that? Or have you always been just like, Man, I just go for it. I'm
Cody Matechuk 11:48
go for it. But with practice and with confidence, you know, bicycles, or whatever it is, we've always been building jumps since I was three years old, pulling them back a little bit farther, a little bit farther. So it gives you the confidence to come into these things. I don't generally do something unless I know it can be done or unless I know I can do it, or a baby step my way into it. But everyone, and I think that's the same with everyone. That's just what my baseline is versus what someone else's baseline is, can be substantially different. Like, why
Nick VinZant 12:26
are you good at it?
Cody Matechuk 12:27
I think practice and the amount of different sports that I've done through my life. I've rode professional street bikes, professional dirt bikes, my professional wingsuit, or professional FX rider, professional snowbike, rider, and professional snowmobile rider among all my other hobbies side of sports. So you can start pulling from all these different activities. And when you're constantly learning new sports, whether it's extreme sports, or my latest Laird has actually golf, which is a insanely frustrating sport to learn. But he started pulling from everything and having all these experiences in your quiver ready to pull from, you know, the corner speed and the precision of street bikes, the gnarliness and the ever trade changing track conditions of dirt bikes, I rode bulls for a little bit in high school, you got the earliness of that, and being able to just react to a moving animal, you know, you can start pulling from all these sports and adding them into your own style. So I think just being able to do as many things as possible, when you're young, and growing up through it and always challenging yourself to learn, keeps you in the right mindset to be able to push through any anything.
Nick VinZant 13:51
Are you ready for some harder slash listener submitted questions? Yeah, let's go. What is your worst injury and how did you come back from it
Cody Matechuk 13:58
had a few bad injuries Nothing crazy, though. You know, plates in the collarbone. I just broke my back, shattered legs, but nothing that had to do any crazy long term healing. I've always been really good at healing. And lately I've been diving into Chinese medicine, chi, real crazy things. And, for example, my back break, I was writing again in five weeks, I was actually wingsuiting again in three weeks. And there's that was a gnarly crash. So I mean, you can learn anything, you can definitely learn how to heal quick.
Nick VinZant 14:37
Walking down the stairs, I'd be worried about my back. Does it linger in your mind or do you just put it at a completely aside?
Cody Matechuk 14:44
I kind of come to terms with it every every crash has a different reason for the crash whether it's your fault, someone else's fault, and those can play. This one wasn't really my fault like I know what I did. But there was also a bit of just random loop to it. So it's not something that really lingers in my head that one. If you completely mess something up, then I definitely feel how it is how it can affect the comeback of it. But I mean, yeah, it's hard. I know it's hard to come back fears is a serious thing. But facing fear every day with the extreme sports, the wingsuiting, where you're facing wall based jumping, you're facing death every day. But all those help a guy overcome it, and all we can really change is what's right now. So living in the past, letting those thoughts intrude. It's, it's always just a downhill slope. So, yeah, being able to conquer the mind as
Nick VinZant 15:47
an athlete. Was there ever a point where you feel like okay, I figured this out. Like I unlocked the secret to getting my success. And do you remember what that was?
Cody Matechuk 15:58
It comes and goes, for sure. You know, there's, there's a time race and X game sponsors were good, money was good. Wasn't much problems. All I had to do is hit the gym, workout race. Things are good. X Games goes away. Things changed. Now we're switching sports. I'm in freestyle motocross full time now. So for sure, there's times of comfort, but that usually doesn't last you know, everything changes everything moves in the world universe, whatever you want to say. So conference, a dangerous thing. I think. I agree
Nick VinZant 16:34
with that. Right, that it's hard to take risks. I think a lot of people struggle with taking risks.
Cody Matechuk 16:38
That change is good, though. I agree. A lot of people do struggle with taking risks because it's easy to be comfortable. And taking risks. I mean, any type of risk, whether it's job, personal risk, sports, whatever. It all leads to change in a way whether it's change in growth or change in injury or you know, you might lose your job. But change is good, negative or positive. You're learning lessons either way. You know, stagnation is not good. So it can be scary, but usually you look back on any type of risk. And the end result maybe 510 years later is positive.
Nick VinZant 17:20
What do you feel like is the best place to go Snowbiking?
Cody Matechuk 17:24
I have been quite a few places including Japan, Chile haven't made it over to Russia yet but North America and bc I mean, it's really hard to beat British Columbia. I usually get bounced between Whistler the coast and interior BC like Revelstoke area. But basically, all LBC and then storm chasing from there. It's just the snow that we usually get not this year, this year. It's terrible. But the snow we usually get is hard to be anywhere in the world.
Nick VinZant 17:59
Does it change everything? Like how important is the snow condition? I guess, to the experience to get to the question, snow
Cody Matechuk 18:06
is everything. Um, the more snow you got, the more fun you're gonna have period. And, but it changes you know, for me, I like jumping. So the more snow I get, the more freedom I have to jump off big things. I can't jump off a 50 foot cliff with barely any snow, I need the snow to create that soft landing. If you're just going to explore generally, it's easier to explore in bad snow conditions with a snow bike than a snowmobile. So I guess it depends on your purpose. But I think everyone would agree the more snow the better. For sure.
Nick VinZant 18:45
What do you think is the future of the sport?
Cody Matechuk 18:49
Few years ago, I would say you know racing X Games all that. Now it's hard to say. I think snowbike world needs a purpose built snowbike And something for everyone to get excited about. We've been bringing new people into the sport moto guys. It's been good slowly growing. But it could be a lot better. So I think just innovation is the the biggest thing. Innovation in the actual snowbike itself.
Nick VinZant 19:17
Do you think it can survive without a big competition? Like if there isn't some big competition? Can this keep going?
Cody Matechuk 19:24
Yeah, I think I think it can keep going because the racing is good for promotion and stuff, but it's not good for the masses. You know, most people don't want to buy a bike to go buy a snow bike and build a snow bike to go on a track. It's not what they're built for. They're built for the mountains. So you know that's, that's their biggest thing. They they liked the mountains, they like the fresh powder, and they're really good at back country.
Nick VinZant 19:54
So somebody is looking to get into this like what kind of equipment should they be looking at? What should they watch out for? for someone
Cody Matechuk 20:00
looking to get into it, I would say go do a guided tour. Snow bikes are expensive to get into, you know, it's, you can get into a used bike. But used bikes can be very scary, anything older, because it's such a new scene, anything older is like tenfold worse. Every year, there was such big technology, technology, technical advances in the in the equipment. So I would say if you're buying the snowbike, spend a little bit extra to get something a little bit newer, or and go take a tour, go take a guided tour, not just a rental, and go see what what you really can get into kind of
Nick VinZant 20:45
helped me get some perspective on this, you're going probably how fast jump and how far,
Cody Matechuk 20:50
this nobody's 10 feet long, that's the best way to put it. So you know that this one's like probably 160 feet, 150 feet. These little things are super fun quarter pipes, the gyro of the track allows you to do these, like 180s allows you to kick over and spin the bike around and keep it all balanced using the track speed to bring it around
Nick VinZant 21:17
with the weight with the weight of that, do you have to like muscle it the whole way? Or can you kind of just get it going and it'll take itself around the curve, so to speak. Yeah,
Cody Matechuk 21:28
you kind of initiate it, there's a little bit of, you know, it's it's like anything the work, the least efficient you are, the more muscle you will have to use. But if you can be really efficient with the timing of everything, then it doesn't take much effort. But it's you have to be very precise. But yeah, it's just a you know, set it off the lip, do a little bit of something in the middle air. And hopefully you timed everything right to land back down and not explode. I actually have a video I think right after this video where I was doing a quarter pipe and I over Rotated one and you can see me blow off and crash.
Nick VinZant 22:08
How fast are you usually going through they're not
Cody Matechuk 22:11
my not that fast. Like a lot of those bigger jumps were either third or fourth year. But it's not third or fourth on a dirt bike, it's third or fourth on a snow bike, which is a lot less. I don't really have a speed for you. But we spent a lot of time packing runways and making the transition of the jump very smooth, because it's so easy to like G out and something and lose 10 mile an hour. So it's just a constant game of trying to use gravity trying to use the right curves of the mountain to allow yourself to have as much speed as possible. And generally, if you want to go really big, it's a step down more than a double or gap. So
Nick VinZant 22:52
it's not like you're going like 100 miles an hour, right? No, no, it's 160. Is that a big jump? Or is that kind of like man, it's Tuesday. Um,
Cody Matechuk 23:01
it's big for sure. It's there's no none of this like that one right, there is a big one. One of the bigger ones for a snow bike. But I've done a few that are like to the point where it's testing what a snow bikes ever done. So there's a step down in Whistler, by grizzly Lake, it's like 150 foot step down, the total vertical distance is probably 80 feet down. And you're looking at this thing, it's a step down, you got to hit fourth gear to make it over the gap. Because it's an actual like gap. And the only thought of the first time I hit it what I was thinking I'm like man, snowflakes never done this, I have no idea what's going to happen like you're landing one ski way down the mountain. Is it going to pop out? Is it gonna stick and fold? Is it gonna bust in half, like I don't know if the forks are gonna break off. But in the end, there's only one way to try and you know, it doesn't come on the first year it's coming from years and years of sending it bigger and bigger and bigger and getting to the point where all we gotta go bigger to see if it can go bigger. So it's just kind of what it's evolved to.
Nick VinZant 24:19
You're not just checking the user's manual
Cody Matechuk 24:22
no yeah, we're writing it okay when
Nick VinZant 24:24
this replays like when did you realize like, oh crap
Cody Matechuk 24:32
pretty soon because I knew I was going to over rotate but with the deep snow sometimes if you can get your weight so you can see me shift my weight far to the left, my left Yeah. For landing trying to like counteract all that force. But because the back end whipped out a little bit too much. It just I couldn't hold on to it. Sometimes. You know if that landing was three feet higher, I probably could have stuck it but you Um, yeah, it was just a little bit too much off the side. So you
Nick VinZant 25:04
knew Friday, right? Like they like oh crap from the very beginning, like, oh man, I'd done fucked up. Yeah. Dude, what are you doing? Like, that's crazy man innovation. That's a great answer, by the way, innovation. That's what I'm doing. Don't you worry about? Yeah.
Cody Matechuk 25:26
This was in Pemberton, the Rutherford right on the glacier. And that was my fourth snowbike base.
Nick VinZant 25:33
Is it really fun? Or is it kind of like, okay, I'm just gonna see if I can do this? Or would you really be like, No, man, you got it, you got to try this. That's great.
Cody Matechuk 25:43
I'd love to say you got to try this. It's great. But it takes years and years of both snow bikes. And riding and parachuting to combine it all. There's a lot of things that are happening there that can kill you. But the feeling is amazing. There's riding bikes all my life, and then being able to ride bikes off a cliff into a parachute and seeing, you know, the GoPro angle that is insane when you pop off the lip, and you see like three 400 feet of air underneath your front fender, just like the hell am I doing here? This is great. Just, it's a perspective that you can't manufacture you just you gotta go out there and do it. So it's, yeah, just taking different passions and merging them all together.
Nick VinZant 26:35
I'm always fascinated by logistics. Like, did you test the parachute on the snowbike first, did the snowbike work afterwards,
Cody Matechuk 26:45
I don't really have a budget to go like drop it out of a heli and test it. So the first test was just riding it off a cliff. You know, I hung it in my shop off a forklift to see like how it hangs under the parachute get the right connection points. But besides that, you know, I had the confidence going into the first one to know that I would be okay. But I didn't have the confidence to know that the bike would be okay. I wasn't sure how that was gonna go. But the way that it's connected to me, as long as my bike didn't stall or something going off the jump, I knew that I was going to be okay. So that helps, you know, breathe a lot of confidence into the whole situation of it. But yeah, now that you're watching the testing, that is testing right here.
Nick VinZant 27:34
So the one thing okay, I can only compare it to like mountain biking, because that's the only thing that I know about right? And like, in my mind mountain biking, okay, don't go over the front, right? Like don't go over the handlebars? Is there something similar with snow biking, right, you got to watch this part of it all the time. For
Cody Matechuk 27:53
sure, I think the biggest mistake I see from people right riding and jumping and learning how to do drops, is they kind of treat it like if you're going long on a dirt bike, where you land back tire and slap the front tire down. And if you do this off, even a six foot drop, it'll send you over the handlebars, and it scares people off of jumping because they're like, Oh, I can't do it, my bike won't do it. It's like, well, we just got to work on your body position and what you're actually doing in the landing, and we can make you jump these big jumps. It's not hard, it's just we got to change you. The thing with snowbike is you kind of got to land that like a jetski where you're like diving in and bombing out, it's like, you need it to land front ski first. And then it'll do like, you know, it'll go in and out and you'll bounce out of the snow. If you land backs or tail first, then what happens is your front slaps down, your ski folds up, and it basically hits the brakes on you and you go over the bars every time. So it's me, you know, it's just yeah, there's definitely it's finicky. And it's unnatural to land front ski first, especially into steep slopes. But generally that's what's needed.
Nick VinZant 29:14
That is kind of interesting right there. Like it's counterintuitive, at least to me, as I know, hit the front part first. Like when are we gonna flip over the damn thing?
Cody Matechuk 29:22
Yeah, no. It's the opposite of what you think.
Nick VinZant 29:25
Oh, that's cool.
Cody Matechuk 29:27
This a second gear stepped down. This is actually right across from the snow bike base. You're just watching, which is on the other side of the valley there. That's an old snowboard jump or not old but very popular snowboard jump and films and stuff.
Nick VinZant 29:45
It's beautiful out there. No, it's
Cody Matechuk 29:47
amazing. That's that's where you can go ride with Jeff Kyle and Pemberton mountain moto.
Nick VinZant 29:53
That's pretty much all the questions I got man. Is there anything that we kind of missed or anything like that?
Cody Matechuk 29:58
Um, I don't Think so I mean, the biggest, biggest advice through our whole conversation I would say is be open to trying new things. And if you're looking at going to do snow bikes, and go, it's it's amazing. The snow definitely plays a part in it. So maybe don't go right now in January if you're in BC, because it kind of sucks out there right now. But wait a couple, wait a month or so. And it's going to be pretty rad. And get out there and enjoy the outdoors. Because it's the places snow bikes can take you on the place is just saying yes, can take you are quite amazing. I want
Nick VinZant 30:35
to thank Cody so much for joining us if you want to connect with him, we have linked to him on our social media sites. We're Profoundly Pointless on tik, Tok, Instagram and YouTube. And we've also included his information in the episode description, if you want to see some of the things that he does, and they are very impressive and crazy to watch. The YouTube version of this episode will be live on January 18. At 12:30pm Pacific. Okay, now let's bring in John Shaw, and get to the pointless part of the show. How long will you spend texting or emailing somebody before you're willing to call them? Minute? Five minutes hour?
John Shull 31:24
Not very long. I mean, I'm not going to put a minute limit on it. But if it's something that I need immediately, I call Hmm.
Nick VinZant 31:32
So you're taking it from like a work perspective, though. But what about somebody personally, because we've been texting back and forth, and I've called you and then you suddenly didn't answer the phone.
John Shull 31:40
So what was that? I don't even remember when that was? I
Nick VinZant 31:43
don't know. It's been a while dude, I didn't jot it down in my diary. Do you actually when you call someone, do you actually expect them to answer the phone? No, never. Do you think that you can just straight up call someone now? Or do you feel like you need to text them? And then call like, Hey, I'm gonna call you? No,
John Shull 31:59
but I think you're more apt to get response texting. I think texting has completely made us as a society disillusion from having to actually communicate with each other. Well, I'm
Nick VinZant 32:12
not sure I'm not entirely sure. I do think that every generation looks at the younger generation and new technology. And it's like, That's dumb. But back in my day, we didn't do it that way. Right? Like the generations older and you felt the same way that you feel about the generations younger than you? Or if we've actually like, oh, maybe we this is really a bad idea. And we should kind of bring actually talking to people back.
John Shull 32:32
Well, if we're gonna talk about how shitty the generations are now Oh, God,
Nick VinZant 32:38
I don't think okay, let's hear it because then I'll give you my spiel about it has to
John Shull 32:43
be said that there is something up with the generation that was after you and eyes generation because the Buffalo Bills there. They actually they're playing Monday or played Monday in the playoffs. They had to postpone that game because the Buffalo area got hit with like 40 inches of snow. crazy amount of snow, but apparently for Buffalo. That's, that's just like, Sunday. Yeah, they
Nick VinZant 33:04
get Lake Effect. They're my mother's from Niagara Falls, which is next to Buffalo. So don't talk to me about buffalo.
John Shull 33:09
Anyways, I'm not talking to you about buffalo. The Buffalo Bills needed people to go into the stadium and basically shovel snow off the seats so they could have the stadium ready for fans for today. They were offering $20 an hour to do so. Guess how many people they had show up to do it.
Nick VinZant 33:32
20. Close
John Shull 33:33
double that less than 50. But I'm thinking if you're a young person, why wouldn't you do that? You work six hours and make $120 Yeah, you're in the cold, you're shoveling snow. But like, why wouldn't you do that? I'd be all over that.
Nick VinZant 33:49
This is my rant about businesses. I don't like this whole rant about businesses. Because there's a business. You either profit off your product or you profit off of labor and businesses are used to profiting off of people's labor. And now that people don't want to do that anymore. Oh, they don't like it. Nobody wants to work. No. People still want to work, pay more money and they'd show up. I just think that's bull. I think that's all Bull.
John Shull 34:12
I mean, I don't I don't disagree with you on that part of it. I mean, businesses are, you're gonna have a whole podcast a year talking about businesses and how shitty they are. I'm just saying that your I mean, our generation, like, I'm not gonna go out there and shovel because I'm old, and I'd probably have a heart attack.
Nick VinZant 34:29
So you're criticizing younger people for doing not doing something that you yourself wouldn't do. I
John Shull 34:34
mean, like, I would do it. i You i absolutely love if Detroit the Detroit Lions are asking for volunteers on a Saturday night to do that. And I could I of course, I would do it. Just for the fun of it.
Nick VinZant 34:47
Maybe people don't like it, right, like maybe $20. And I think that you had to do it like overnight in the middle of the winter in the freezing cold. Really hard labor doesn't really sound appealing to people. charge more pay more money. I bet you'd have a lot more people show up. Oh, we don't wanna do that.
John Shull 35:06
I don't. I mean, I don't disagree with you these these NFL teams make. I mean, hell the Detroit Lions game was on? Or no, I'm sorry, not the Detroit was the Kansas City Chiefs game. Yeah. What streaming only? Like, are you kidding me? So I don't I don't disagree with you at all.
Nick VinZant 35:23
I don't have any problem with any generation, every generation is a product of their time. And if you took our generation and put it in the same age as this generation, now, we would be exactly the same. Same with the people who fought World War Two, same with every generation that you're gonna talk about. They're all products of their own time. And every generation feels the same way about the generations above them in the generation below them. And they always will. So I don't like whenever people are like, Oh, this generation today like we have, you'd be the same.
John Shull 35:50
You sound like such an old man right now. Also,
Nick VinZant 35:53
I pulled the audience up. Let's see. Let's see what the answer is. 48% of people said they would rather spend 10 plus minutes texting and emailing someone rather than calling them and that is a wide majority. 15% said they would spend less than a minute minute, one to five said 30%. That's where I am in the one to five rage. Five to 10 9% and 10 plus minutes. 48%. Yeah, do people don't want to talk to people? I wouldn't want to talk to me either.
John Shull 36:22
I mean, once again, right, right. We just talked about generations, right? Our generation was kind of what started all of this with texting and AOL Instant Messenger. So maybe you our generation is the problem. Maybe I'm the problem.
Nick VinZant 36:34
That's the thing, where you can't complain about younger generations, because you were some of the people that helped shape and mold them. So it's like as a parent, like their fault as a child is your fault as a parent.
John Shull 36:47
Are you getting real deep there? Yeah, dude,
Nick VinZant 36:49
it's tough when you really face reality and like, Oh, these kids do they suck, aren't they? Your kids?
John Shull 36:55
know our kids are the next generation. Right? If they suck, it's our fault. My children have no chance. So now they'll be
Nick VinZant 37:03
alright. Maybe fake like when your wife remarries, they get a cool stepdad. There'll be alright dude.
John Shull 37:08
Well, might happen sooner than what we know. All right, are we ready for shout outs are you got anything else?
Nick VinZant 37:14
No, I'm good. Let's see here. All right,
John Shull 37:18
let's see Logan Austin. Ace Gannon.
Nick VinZant 37:21
Wait is Logan Austin one person or is it two people is that Logan comma Austin or Logan? Austin. Two first is
John Shull 37:27
one. One person I believe just Logan Austin. Stefano effector Delaney Morrison. Kimber chi. Daniel selvagem. Casey Williams Morgan Abby. Thomas Guerrero. Jackson row. Christopher blend dizzy I don't know if I believe that's a real last name but still fine. I like names that end with like, you know, zi or like those Italian last names like you know, just they have some solidity? solidity solidity.
Nick VinZant 38:03
I don't like that. That was so bad. I don't even know what word you're trying to say. I couldn't even like validity. Sure. I yeah, you tried to say like, what word? What are you trying to say?
John Shull 38:17
Solid solidity? I
Nick VinZant 38:18
don't I don't know. Solid name, solidity.
John Shull 38:21
I was making shit up there. Must have anyways, let me just end this. This is embarrassing. Kara Tillman. Fred korphe? And Jeffrey Trembley. Okay,
Nick VinZant 38:32
is Jackson J A C K, or is there an accent Jackson? Only changes my opinion of Jackson depending on what the how the spelling is? Definitely
John Shull 38:42
Jack son. GjA CK Okay,
Nick VinZant 38:46
that's fine. J AC K S O n is okay. J x not acceptable that's gonna be a douche All right sorry if you're a Jackson listening to this you know
John Shull 38:58
I'm just thinking like you just offended every every Jackson that's listening this I suppose with him like that. He doesn't mean it. Alright, are you ready for this? This idea I have that you're going to have Oh
Nick VinZant 39:11
my gosh. All right. I think we survived in typical John fashion. It was supposed to be like three weeks ago, but it's today.
John Shull 39:17
Well, I've been having been having internet issues and I found out that it wasn't even my fault. Imagine. Oh, okay. So I have 10 topics. And literally, literally and we can scale it down. We can go up okay. Okay. I literally just want you to react to whatever I say. triple A batteries.
Nick VinZant 39:40
I've always wondered why there's not B batteries. Like why don't we have b like B batteries? I've always found that the answer is I don't have a problem with Triple A I'm more of a fan of double A batteries. Double A batteries are probably my favorite batteries, triple A batteries. Maybe I can I can put them in there. I like D batteries that makes you feel like you really doing something? Then you go down to AAA. I don't like the little watch once.
John Shull 40:04
You definitely made a good point there. I don't know why there isn't a B battery. I'm sure there has to be a B battery, the batteries. Alright, because
Nick VinZant 40:12
people would think You're stuttering, but that's probably why
John Shull 40:16
Condoleezza Rice
Nick VinZant 40:19
I don't even remember what she was famous for.
John Shull 40:21
Fair enough. The Iowa caucuses don't
Nick VinZant 40:25
care. Tell me when to tell me when the results are in, right. Like, I don't want to get into any of that stuff. I don't want to hear about it. I don't want to do all that stuff. Fair enough. Also, also, fuck. Here we go. Oh, here we go. Yes. Let's
John Shull 40:39
see. What's this? Come on the 17. That's all that's all we'll have to say. For this year's political cycle as fuck. Here we go.
Unknown Speaker 40:47
Here we go.
John Shull 40:48
All right. Maker's Mark.
Nick VinZant 40:52
Overrated. I've never liked that bottle. I like things that like I don't like it when you open a bottle and then there's still stuff left on it. I like things to be clean. Like if I open it, I want all this stuff off of the bottle. So all right.
John Shull 41:06
All right. Eminem, the singer rapper.
Nick VinZant 41:12
Is he that great of a rapper? To other rappers think that he's a great rapper. I mean, he's famous. I like some of his songs. But is he that? I see that like, where is he if he's not a white guy.
John Shull 41:28
I mean, I think lyrically in songwriting ability. He's up there. Obviously, I, you know, I think the color of his skin and the fact that he was able, the fact that Dre was able to pick him up, and he kind of, you know, I don't want to say crossed the lines, because that's the wrong thing to say. But the fact that he was able to be it to appeal to everybody is also what makes them that great. Yeah, I would I put them in my top five.
Nick VinZant 41:53
rappers. I don't know anything about if he's a good rapper or not. I don't particularly like a lot of his songs. That's just me. I just, it's not my I'm not that angry. I like happier music.
John Shull 42:05
All right. Well, speaking of happy volcano tourism.
Nick VinZant 42:11
Oh, well, yeah, that'd be awesome. But I want to know, I want to know exactly what's happening with the volcano. Right, like I want I'm not getting any discount volcano tours, right, like 20% off volcano tour right now. I'd like to pay full price. Right? You need five star reviews. All five stars.
John Shull 42:33
Robert Downey Jr.
Nick VinZant 42:35
huge comeback man. huge comeback. But I think that he I feel like that he got confused at some point in his life and actually thinks that he's Tony Stark. He's somebody that I feel like started playing a character and then became that character.
John Shull 42:51
Okay. I mean, I think he's used it to his advantage to not only help him personally, but professionally, who wouldn't want to pretend to be a superhero in their personal life, but Atawhai would have played one.
Nick VinZant 43:04
Why would you turn that job down? I think that'd be really hard to turn down any of those jobs. But I think that he's I'm trying to think if there's any other actor that would be like after they play a character now that's who they are. Well, Jim Carrey when he played the Hoffman guy, or Huffman or something like that. Kaufman, Andy Kaufman was him from then on.
John Shull 43:23
Yeah, I mean, yeah. Anyways, that's another part of this whole segment here. Hot air balloons.
Nick VinZant 43:32
No desire to do that whatsoever. Like, I don't like why did we invent this? Actually, hot air balloons are probably one of the worst inventions that we've ever had as a society like let's 10 People hundreds if not 1000s People have people in the air with a balloon and let's put fire below it. Like if an alien species came in and saw hot air balloons, they would be like, What the hell are you guys doing? Hot air balloons are the craziest thing we've ever invented.
John Shull 44:00
Fair enough. I don't even know how I came up with this one. Gas Station hot dogs.
Nick VinZant 44:09
Only one gas station. I'm going to eat food from his Kwik Trip Kwik Trip has pretty good food. Kwik Trip is kind of like the Wawa the race track the really nice gas station that people like I mean, it's it's not it's a gas station is ridiculous, but it's nice. Like okay, so like the 711 You're like, do I want to get gas? Yeah.
John Shull 44:29
All right, last one here. I think it's actually been quite successful so far. But we'll end on sanitary wipes
Nick VinZant 44:37
have used them nonstop in my life. I've literally never thought that I would be buying a carton of 900 sanitary wipes regularly with Costco orders.
John Shull 44:49
I'm actually right there, right. That if the pandemic gave me anything, it's the importance of cleaning surfaces with sanitary wipes.
Nick VinZant 44:59
Yeah, okay. All right, that was solid. How did you feel about some of those? Right? Is there anything that you mentioned there that you have a particularly strong opinion about?
John Shull 45:10
I mean, you made a good point about what? I'm sure there is a B battery. There has to be, but like, that's a good point. I always felt that AAA batteries are kind of pointless. I mean, double A's are where it's at. Volcano tourism to me just seems dumb. Too risky. And if you're one of those tourism towns on the edge of volcano, I just don't know what you're thinking. Yeah, now, I mean, I'm cool with gas station hotdogs. And I think Eminem is one of the greatest rappers of all time. So,
Nick VinZant 45:42
okay, here we go. We got quadruple A. So four A's, triple A double a half, ay ay. Ay. I've never seen any battery. I've never seen a plane a battery. There is a B battery. Oh, it's only in the United Kingdom. There's a C battery, which looks gigantic. D battery, F battery, which is like the size of a toilet paper. Oh my god. It's a huge S battery. There's an N, N A 23. And a 27. A duplex battery. Okay, well, I could go on about batteries for a while.
John Shull 46:19
I'm fascinated by stuff like that. I mean, listen, that D batteries, Z batteries would also be a good one. I accomplished my mission there. It was pointless. But it was profound. So
Nick VinZant 46:30
as a deep side, that's one of the thing right? By getting in the Find out the way that people think about little things. You can learn
John Shull 46:35
a lot about them. For sure. Absolutely.
Nick VinZant 46:39
When you hang up your shirts, do you go through the neck? Or do you go up? Do you go up through the bottom? Or do you go through the neck?
John Shull 46:47
Through the neck? Why?
Nick VinZant 46:50
It stretches out the shirt? Go up?
John Shull 46:53
Because I have like 40 of the same kind of shirt. So what do I care?
Nick VinZant 46:58
Well, you're ruining them. If you didn't ruin them, you wouldn't need so many shirts. You're gonna bake a neck your shirt. Why wouldn't you go up through the shirt? I don't understand that. No,
John Shull 47:09
no, it's fine. I do I have hanger markers on what you're looking at there. And I don't
Nick VinZant 47:13
know. I've just wondered about this because I saw my son who's learning up to hang on. He goes through the neck. I was like, that's not the way to do that. Go up to the shirt.
John Shull 47:20
Well be irresponsible dad and tell him what he's doing wrong.
Nick VinZant 47:25
I'm trying to learn him. I try to learn them. Right. Okay, alert him. Are you ready for a tough one?
John Shull 47:31
I am. I'm actually quite excited about this top five.
Nick VinZant 47:36
Okay, so our top five is top five foods that start with the letter A
John Shull 47:40
perfect well then I'm going to put angel hair pasta as my number five.
Nick VinZant 47:45
Okay, all right. I don't know if I really like angel hair better than spaghetti. I wouldn't ever really. I don't know if I would ever be like do you want spaghetti? No. Too thick. Give me the angel hair.
John Shull 47:58
No, I mean, did this just like you said there are there's not as many a foods as you think there are in terms of foods to start with the letter A avocado. I do I actually have that on my list, but it's a little higher up so I can come back to that.
Nick VinZant 48:15
Do you think that it's weird that I don't like avocados but like guacamole
John Shull 48:27
because it's you know, but in general, I might ask a question or two. Okay. All right. Well, we
Nick VinZant 48:36
can get to it when we get to your wherever yours is.
John Shull 48:38
Oh, I know for my number four is I hate tuna. Hmm.
Nick VinZant 48:43
That's the thing that I don't know the difference. If you were like, This is tuna. This is ahi tuna.
John Shull 48:50
I'm not even entirely sure that I know the difference, but I know that I've had ahi tuna and I love it.
Nick VinZant 48:54
So okay, mind number four is ale. Explain it. I'm not sure what that is. I don't know what ale is. I don't know the difference between ale and beer. But ale it starts with an A. Let's look it up. I'll look it up. Alright,
John Shull 49:08
while you do that, I'm gonna explain what ahi tuna is. It's a It's known for its high fat content, rich flavor and meaty texture while Tuna has a milder flavor and a softer with a more delicate texture.
Nick VinZant 49:23
Beer is a broader term encompassing various styles and flavors. In contrast, ale is a specific type of beer made with a different kind of yeast and fermented and a different temperature loggers versus ale so everything is essentially an ale or a lager, but it's all beer. Everything is so complex. Everything is so complex.
John Shull 49:46
I actually thought you're being a smartass. I mean, I know what ale is, but I thought you were gonna say no, it's some kind of cracker or something.
Nick VinZant 49:54
No, it's just ale. I thought you were Mr. beer snob.
John Shull 49:57
I like I said I'm you know Whatever my number three is. I'm going to put it as asparagus. It Oh, I am I'm gonna do it. I'm gonna do it.
Nick VinZant 50:12
That's like a big hard division. That's like a big hard. That's like a big division in society, people who like asparagus versus people who don't like experience asparagus.
John Shull 50:23
I mean, it's it's delicious when it's done right? When it's cooked, right, put in the airfryer for 15 minutes with some parmesan cheese, and some pepper. It's delicious. I have
Nick VinZant 50:37
strong opinions about food like that, where you have to do a whole bunch of stuff to it before it's actually tastes good. Like, No, it's good. If you put lots of butter on it and fry it and covered in chocolate and then it's really good. Like, is it?
John Shull 50:53
I mean, I don't I don't, I don't disagree with you. But asparagus is fine. It's It's good. It deserves to be at least in the top five of a foods.
Nick VinZant 51:00
My number three is apples.
John Shull 51:03
Okay. I have kind of that coming up.
Nick VinZant 51:09
Oh, okay. Okay, I see what you're going. Alright, what's your number two.
John Shull 51:14
So my number two is where I slotted in avocados. That's pretty high for avocados. Love them. And I mean, I'll eat a large avocado by itself. Let's see. Oh, it's so good. And you can put them on what salads. Rice, any I mean really anything except like dark meats.
Nick VinZant 51:35
I don't like that's the thing. I would never eat an avocado by itself. Like to me and avocado alone is disgusting. But guacamole is great.
John Shull 51:45
I mean, once again, you kind of just gave me shit about asparagus. But it sounds like you don't really like the avocado. You like it mixed in with everything else.
Nick VinZant 51:55
It's still the dominant flavor though. I feel like avocado is 70% of guacamole. flavor wise.
John Shull 52:04
Maybe what's your name? Okay.
Nick VinZant 52:05
What percentage are you gonna put it on there chef? Emeril, I don't know any famous chefs any morning. So people, that's the thing that we have really missed out on in society that I would like to complain about. There is not enough references about people when they do something comparing them to famous people. Like when somebody else used to talk about directions and you have give them directions, they would be like, okay, Rand McNally. Like that whole Gen that's lost on new generations. I just like Gordon Ramsay,
John Shull 52:32
I saw how you like gave me shit for the generation talked earlier. And look what you just did. There is a one person under 30 that knows what a Rand McNally is.
Nick VinZant 52:41
Now, I don't think so. I wonder they and you know how to read a map?
John Shull 52:46
No, probably not. And that's nothing to them. That's just their generation was not Google Maps. They wouldn't know how to do latitude longitude, any of that.
Nick VinZant 52:54
Do you know how to do longitude longitude? Like if I told you 23 clicks ease? Or something like that? Would you know how to if I showed you the longitude, longitude numbers? Would you know anything about where that is?
John Shull 53:04
Yes, I could find I could find it on a map. You could you give me the degrees. I could find it. It's not that hard.
Nick VinZant 53:14
What is 42 degrees north 83 degrees west. Rand McNally.
John Shull 53:21
I mean, like on the entire world, like I don't know. Exactly. Like if you were like turn to page 18 and find that I could find that. Oh,
Nick VinZant 53:30
I see what you're saying. Well, it's Detroit but since you don't live in Detroit anymore, you I could understand why he would.
John Shull 53:35
Whatever. My number one is apple pie.
Nick VinZant 53:40
Okay, apple pie is pretty good. Oh, I didn't do my number two though.
John Shull 53:43
That's Oh, because you just went on a fucking rant. That's right. Okay, fine.
Nick VinZant 53:48
That's fine. My number two is American. My number two is American cheese. American cheese is the best kind of cheese to me.
John Shull 53:56
You know what? That's that's actually a good one. That's I probably messed up by not putting us Diego cheese on my list.
Nick VinZant 54:03
God you're such a snob. You know what, honestly, I'll go cheese is like I couldn't even pick a like pick which one is Aussie? Algo. Like, I don't know. The only kind of cheese I can differentiate is like blue Swiss and American
John Shull 54:20
because one has holes the other has mold. And the other one's yellow. Right?
Nick VinZant 54:24
Right. That's pretty much it chatter. I could probably pick up shatter anyways.
John Shull 54:30
So I guess see that jumped the gun. I'll re say it but my number one is apple pie.
Nick VinZant 54:36
Okay, it's good. Solid number one. I think my number one is all you can eat buffet starts with an A. It starts with an A.
John Shull 54:48
It just it's kind of cheating but whatever. It's fine.
Nick VinZant 54:53
It's not like this list is going down and like the Hall of record. Only. What if somehow What if somehow something happens? And the only thing that survives media wise? Is this show? Like somehow that's all that survives 1000 years in the future people would be like, why? Yeah. Oh my god, could you imagine that? They
John Shull 55:26
they didn't used to have sex with robots what?
Nick VinZant 55:31
Why were they obsessed with all these top five lists?
John Shull 55:37
What what is? What's a fleshlight? Susan?
Nick VinZant 55:40
What is that? Man? These guys are like what is? Why was Jack son so much worse than Jackson? It's the same name. Could you imagine like, one
John Shull 55:53
guy doesn't even know how to follow the rules on a list and all you eat get all you can eat buffet is not an a word. And it
Nick VinZant 56:01
all starts with an A all you can eat buffet. How is it any different than apple pie, which is just a combination of words?
John Shull 56:09
Because if we're going to put if we're going to do that, like if we do T foods, you're not going to say Taco Bell?
Nick VinZant 56:17
Oh, yeah, I would. I mean Taco Bell is to say
John Shull 56:21
tacos. You just say talk like you could do a buffet for B, I guess. And then say all you can eat but I don't think my list. That's fine. It's fine. I'm not. I'm curious to see the graphic you pick out for it this week.
Nick VinZant 56:34
Okay, what's it? Do you have anything in your honorable mention? I have nothing. There's not as many a foods as you would
John Shull 56:40
think I had to. And then one that I just feel like I need to say so almonds and apricots. And then artichokes. Yeah, exactly. Arby's. Can I put Arby's on the list?
Nick VinZant 56:56
Yeah, I actually, I would accept Arby's. Arby's should be on the list. RVs doesn't get as much credit as it should. It's good food. It's just like, it gets made fun of too much. I think almonds apricots and artichokes are all the same thing where it's like, oh, you can eat that. But you want to like I want an apricot. Why? I could get a peach. It's way better. I'd rather have a nectarine than apricot is my lowest fruit on that kind of like looks like a peach scale. Peach number one plump nectarine
John Shull 57:33
than apricot. Anyway, do you have anything on your Agra mentioned?
Nick VinZant 57:36
No, not that you had. Oh, okay, that's gonna go ahead and do it for this episode of Profoundly Pointless. I want to thank you so much for joining us. If you get a chance. Leave us a quick review. We really appreciate it. It really helps out the show. And let us know what you think are some of the best a foods. I think it's hard to beat like apples. Apple pie. All you can eat buffet. But if you're going to try to put asparagus up there. I mean, you better have a convincing argument.